[CQ-Contest] Certificates

[rjairam at gmail.com]

Youth is one set but sometimes new contesters come from an older set of
hams, in their 30s, 40s and 50s (maybe even beyond). From my informal
observation of the certificate recipients many are happy that an unexpected
reward from a contest they participated came to them, unsolicited.

The idea is the unexpected - and this will often motivate more “serious”
efforts and thus more participation. Maybe even encourage their friends.

Separate from this - one thing I did with NAQP was encourage a group of YLs
that we normally have a net with to form a team. This boosted morale as you
can be part of something that does well. We repeated again for the NA
sprint. Feedback has been positive. Some of them have received awards in
the ARRL contests for their sections also. Now many are looking forward to
the next contest even though they have little chance at any big awards.

This is not a one size fits all approach but it seems to work. I do know
when I joined a contest club (FRC) I began to participate more. This is
because collectively we have a chance to win but you also learn
individually how to succeed. I’ve learned tons from seasoned contest
veterans like W2GD and K3WW.

73
Ria, N2RJ

On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 8:10 AM Dennis Younker NE6I <NE6I at cox.net> wrote:

> This is an interesting topic. I too found paper certs/awards in the mail
> to be a high motivator in my early hamming days. And I still do. The
> younger folks in our midst may not. Many of them are very digital. Or they
> just MIGHT! A paper award is very much out of the ordinary for them.
>
> I agree with Dave that this seems backwards.
>
> If nothing else, perhaps some of our contest clubs around the country
> should get involved in sponsoring paper awards in the Rookie Roundup.
>
> --Dennis NE6I
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest <cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Dave
> Edmonds
> Sent: Sunday, April 8, 2018 1:25 PM
> To: Stanley Zawrotny <k4sbz.stan at gmail.com>
> Cc: CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Certificates
>
> Many have mentioned about how important receiving a certificate in the mail
> early in our contesting career. Guess what ... the winners of the ARRL
> Rookie Roundup are only provided with digital e-mailed certificates. We
> more experienced ops are getting certs in the mail.
>
> This seems backwards to me.
>
> Dace WN4AFP
> On Sun, Apr 8, 2018 at 4:05 PM Stanley Zawrotny <k4sbz.stan at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > In discussing the costs of certificates, we need to also consider the
> > costs of not issuing the certificates. These costs don’t have a dollar
> sign
> > on them. They are difficult to measure because they are the unknown
> number
> > of lost participants in the contests from lack of interest, lack of
> > enthusiasm.
> >
> > Stan, K4SBZ
> >
> > "Real radio bounces off the sky."
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
> --
> Dave Edmonds
> Dave at PKMinistryWebs.com
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